The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified
Congress of the potential sale to Saudi Arabia, the agency said
in a statement posted on its website. It said Saudi Arabia needs
the airplanes to “sustain its aging fleet, which faces
increasing obsolescence,”

The C-130J-30 variant of the four-engine turbo-prop plane
that Saudi Arabia is seeking has 15 extra feet of fuselage
compared with the plane’s standard model, according to Lockheed,
the plane’s maker. The extra space lets the plane carry two
additional cargo pallets, according to Lockheed’s website. The
KC-130 J refueling plane is also made by Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed.

The proposed “sale to Saudi Arabia represents the largest
foreign military sale of C-130s in the program’s history,”
Peter Simmons, a Lockheed spokesman said in an e-mail.

Lockheed Martin rose 64 cents to $90.56 at 1 p.m. in New
York trading after climbing 11 percent this year.

The possible sale also includes 120 engines, including 20
spares made by London-based Rolls Royce Holdings Plc, and 25
Link-16 Multifunctional Information Distribution Systems made by
Rockwell Collins Inc. based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Saudi Arabia received its first C-130 in 1965, according to
Lockheed Martin’s website. The Middle East kingdom now operates
50 older models of the transports, Simmons said.

The proposed sale of the transport planes follows the
Pentagon’s announcement this week that Qatar and United Arab
Emirates are seeking U.S. missile defense systems valued at as
much as $16.4 billion.